Aizawl figures in New Smart City list

Aizawl (zoramobserver.com): Along with two cities from Northeastern states, Aizawl has made it to the new list of 30 cities for development as smart cities under the Centre’ Smart City Mission. Another two cities are Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh and Gangtok in Sikkim. The government announced the list on Friday out of which 30 cities were selected taking the total cities picked up so far to 90 under Smart City Mission.

The inclusion of Pasighat, Aizawl and Gangtok has taken the number of cities in the Northeast to be included in the smart city list to four.

Guwahati was included in the mission last year.

File photo of Aizawl city

Announcing the new list of smart cities at an event in the national capital, Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said that 45 cities contested for the 40 available smart city slots but only 30 were selected to ensure their feasibility and workable plans that match the aspirations of the citizens.

Smart Cities Mission is an urban renewal and retrofitting programme by the Centre with an aim to develop 100 cities (the target has been revised to 109) all over the country making them citizen-friendly and sustainable. Naidu said Rs 57,393 crore would pumped in by the Centre to make the smart cities project a reality. Under the Smart City Mission, the Centre provides Rs 500 crore to each city over a period of 5 years for implementing various projects.

Speaking to reporters here on Saturday, Zodintluanga attributed credit to UD&PA secretary C. Vanlalramsanga and officials of the Directorate.

He said that under smart city mission, various schemes like Health Sector, city decoration and upgradation are included. He said that the government tried to implement these schemes for the welfare of the people.

“Our focus will be to improve urban mobility in the congested areas. We have proposed multi-level car parking, underground road and ICT-based public service delivery,” he added.

Aizawl, which is prone to landslides, has a population of about 4.5 lakh.

Co-Editor, Zoramobserver.com. Mr. Khojol is a journalist based in Aizawl, Mizoram. He writes for various national and regional media houses. In his free time, he can be caught reading books and watching movies.